Monitor network performance for your EC2 instance - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
RequirementsMetrics for the ENA driverView the network performance metrics for your Windows instance
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Monitor network performance for your EC2 instance

The Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) driver publishes network performance metrics from the instances where they are enabled. You can use these metrics to troubleshoot instance performance issues, choose the right instance size for a workload, plan scaling activities proactively, and benchmark applications to determine whether they maximize the performance available on an instance.

Amazon EC2 defines network maximums at the instance level to ensure a high-quality networking experience, including consistent network performance across instance sizes. Amazon provides maximums for the following for each instance:

  • Bandwidth capability – Each EC2 instance has a maximum bandwidth for aggregate inbound and outbound traffic, based on instance type and size. Some instances use a network I/O credit mechanism to allocate network bandwidth based on average bandwidth utilization. Amazon EC2 also has maximum bandwidth for traffic to Amazon Direct Connect and the internet. For more information, see Amazon EC2 instance network bandwidth.

  • Packet-per-second (PPS) performance – Each EC2 instance has a maximum PPS performance, based on instance type and size.

  • Connections tracked – The security group tracks each connection established to ensure that return packets are delivered as expected. There is a maximum number of connections that can be tracked per instance. For more information, see Security group connection tracking

  • Link-local service access – Amazon EC2 provides a maximum PPS per network interface for traffic to services such as the DNS service, the Instance Metadata Service, and the Amazon Time Sync Service.

When the network traffic for an instance exceeds a maximum, Amazon shapes the traffic that exceeds the maximum by queueing and then dropping network packets. You can monitor when traffic exceeds a maximum using the network performance metrics. These metrics inform you, in real time, of impact to network traffic and possible network performance issues.

Requirements

  • Install ENA driver version 2.2.2 or later. To verify the installed version, use Device Manager as follows.

    1. Open Device Manager by running devmgmt.msc.

    2. Expand Network Adapters.

    3. Choose Amazon Elastic Network Adapter, Properties.

    4. On the Driver tab, locate Driver Version.

    To upgrade your ENA driver, see Enhanced networking.

  • To import these metrics to Amazon CloudWatch, install the CloudWatch agent. For more information, see Collect advanced network metrics in the Amazon CloudWatch User Guide.

Metrics for the ENA driver

The ENA driver delivers the following metrics to the instance in real time. They provide the cumulative number of packets queued or dropped on each network interface since the last driver reset.

Metric Description Supported on
bw_in_allowance_exceeded

The number of packets queued or dropped because the inbound aggregate bandwidth exceeded the maximum for the instance.

All instance types
bw_out_allowance_exceeded

The number of packets queued or dropped because the outbound aggregate bandwidth exceeded the maximum for the instance.

All instance types
conntrack_allowance_exceeded

The number of packets dropped because connection tracking exceeded the maximum for the instance and new connections could not be established. This can result in packet loss for traffic to or from the instance.

All instance types
conntrack_allowance_available The number of tracked connections that can be established by the instance before hitting the Connections Tracked allowance of that instance type.

instances built on the Amazon Nitro System only.

Not supported with FreeBSD instances or DPDK environments.
linklocal_allowance_exceeded

The number of packets dropped because the PPS of the traffic to local proxy services exceeded the maximum for the network interface. This impacts traffic to the DNS service, the Instance Metadata Service, and the Amazon Time Sync Service.

All instance types
pps_allowance_exceeded

The number of packets queued or dropped because the bidirectional PPS exceeded the maximum for the instance.

All instance types

View the network performance metrics for your Windows instance

You can view the metrics using any consumer of Windows performance counters. The data can be parsed according to the EnaPerfCounters manifest. This is an XML file that defines the performance counter provider and its countersets.

Manifest installation

If you launched the instance using an AMI that contains ENA driver 2.2.2 or later, or used the install script in the driver package for ENA driver 2.2.2, the manifest is already installed. To install the manifest manually, use the following steps:

  1. Remove the existing manifest using the following command:

    unlodctr /m:EnaPerfCounters.man

  2. Copy the manifest file EnaPerfCounters.man from the driver installation package to %SystemRoot%\System32\drivers.

  3. Install the new manifest using the following command:

    lodctr /m:EnaPerfCounters.man
View metrics using Performance Monitor

  1. Open Performance Monitor.

  2. Press Ctrl+N to add new counters.

  3. Choose ENA Packets Shaping from the list.

  4. Select the instances to monitor and choose Add.

  5. Choose OK.